"Beceem's talented teams of engineers in India and the US have been focused on enabling a 4G ecosystem of operators and equipment manufacturers to drive the deployment of 4G networks," said Scott Bibaud, Broadcom's Executive VP & GM of the Mobile Platforms Group. "We look forward to adding their innovative technologies to our product portfolio and providing these technologies to our customers."

Powerchip Technology, ProMOS Technologies and Winbond Electronics are among possible targets, Elpida President Yukio Sakamoto said in interviews this week.

Software giant Oracle is keen to make more acquisitions to bolster its technology and a microchip company could be a good fit, according to company CEO Larry Ellison.

LG Group said on September 17 it will not buy Hynix Semiconductor, dismissing market speculation that the group will join a bidding race for the purchase of a major stake in the memory chipmaker.

Sir John Bond left his job as chairman of HSBC in 2006 to join Vodafone, where he won praise for steadying a squabbling boardroom. Since then, however, the running has not been smooth at Vodafone, particularly regarding the company's track record on acquisitions.

ARM has reiterated that it wouldn't make sense for a rival to purchase the company after shares rose on takeover speculation.

"Never stop thinking" - the Infineon claim that employees once revised to "Never stop shrinking." That was five years ago, when Infineon spun off memory-chip unit Qimonda.

If true, this would be one very big acquisition.

The next big play in broadband is delivering carrier services to multiple consumer devices in the home over a variety of wired and wireless networks. So chipmakers need to be able to provide a portfolio of Wi-Fi, powerline and coax solutions for STBs, gateways and other devices.

Renesas Electronics has agreed to sell some of its semiconductor-related patents to US-based Acacia Research, according to the company.

"Targets will be companies that have technologies that Fujitsu doesn't have or that have customers that Fujitsu has never been able to reach so far," company president Masami Yamamoto said in an interview. "We would like to get engaged very actively in M&A activities."

Intel has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire security specialist McAfee, through the purchase of all of the company's common stock at US$48 per share in cash, for approximately US$7.68 billion.

"This acquisition is another step in our strategic expansion in the Asia Pacific region and, in particular, increases our scale and scope in the Australian market...". Australia-based itX distributes software, hardware and services from the world's leading suppliers including Oracle, IBM, HP, VMware, Apple, Citrix, Red Hat and Trend Micro.

...and if Apple misses out, it will likely never get another chance to acquire the wireless technology necessary to do so because the entire mobile component value-chain is consolidating and the remaining players are giants.

Hynix will pay an estimated US$422.89 million for the 19.3% stake in the China-based joint venture, Hynix-Numonyx Semiconductor, according to Micron.

Infineon Technologies is in discussions with interested parties about a transaction concerning the segment Wireless Solutions (WLS), according to the company.

Micron Technology has confirmed its support for the phase-change memory product line and R&D inherited when it acquired Numonyx in May 2010. But a company executive declined to give further details of its technology roadmap or how it plans to scale the technology below the 45nm node.

APT has developed ways to improve the quality of audio delivered over bluetooth wireless connections. Its technologies are also widely used in professional audio and broadcasting.

The talk of a Samsung-Infineon deal surfaced in German publication Manager Magazine but neither firm would comment. Two years ago, Samsung greatly extended its purchasing of cellphone chips from Infineon, largely at the expense of Qualcomm.

"We'll seek opportunities including acquisitions and partnerships," executive officer Takehiro Fukuda, who oversees finance and accounting at Elpida, said in a recent interview. "We need to further expand the range of our business in areas such as mobile phone and television chips, and we plan to cut our debt-to-equity ratio to 1 from 1.3 by year-end and eventually to 0.3."

GSI Technology is growing fast by selling specialty memory chips, but the small company wants to grow to the next level.

Japan's Sanyo Electric is to sell its loss-making chip unit to ON Semiconductor for about 33 billion yen (US$373 million), turning its focus to environmentally friendly technology.

Renesas Electronics and Nokia are deepening their collaboration by forming a strategic business alliance to develop modem technologies for HSPA+/LTE and its evolution, according to Renesas. As part of this alliance, the companies have entered into an agreement whereby Renesas is to acquire Nokia's wireless modem business for US$200 million.

Sanyo Electric has decided to sell its semiconductor business to ON Semiconductor for 20-30 billion yen (US$228-341 million), Kyodo News reported Friday, without citing sources.

Intel continues to make a push back into the cell-phone chip business - "sometimes under the radar" - as it acquired Comsys Mobile Communication and Signal Processing for US$30 million in late May, according to Forward Concepts.

Atmel has agreed to sell its smart card business to Inside Contactless for US$37 million in cash and up to $21 million more if targets are met. The transaction is expected to close by the end of the third quarter of 2010, subject to certain closing conditions.

Infineon has denied it is in discussions with diversified Russian holding company AFK Sistema, according to a report, in a rerun of denials from September 2009 and earlier.

Germany's LFoundry, an analog and mixed-signal foundry, has completed its previously-announced acquisition of Atmel's wafer fabrication operation in Rousset, France.

Broadcom expects to close the acquisition of Innovision Research & Technology, which specializes in near-field communication (NFC) technology, in the third quarter of 2010.

GTronix' proprietary technology provides very low power solutions for noise cancellation in mobile applications such as wireless handsets and audio accessories, National Semi said in a statement. The analog chipmaker has acquired GTronix for an undisclosed sum.

Infineon is well equipped financially for future acquisitions, but has no concrete plans for takeovers at the moment, a German newspaper quoted its chief financial officer as saying.

ARM is more valuable as a standalone company and a buyer would be wasting money, said company CEO Warren East. The chip designer rose last week to an eight-year high on takeover talk.

"The acquisition of Sound Design Technologies solidifies our position as a leading supplier of ultra-low-power digital signal processing (DSP) technology for hearing aids and audio processing applications," said Robert Tong, VP of ON Semiconductor's Medical Division.

"ATIC is not in a position to do this in this stage of our capital deployment," said Ibrahim Ajami, CEO of Advanced Technology.